


REWRITE: Fluff in the Wake of a New Day, 2013

by morgainedocher



Category: Tokyo Mew Mew
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2017-12-28 10:44:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/991119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgainedocher/pseuds/morgainedocher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deep Blue and the aliens may have been defeated, but with a potential new threat on the horizon girls of Tokyo Mew Mew reluctantly bid farewell to the few carefree months they've had of peace and ready themselves for a new fight. Keiichiro and Ryou have a plan, but Ichigo won't like it...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This is a Nightmare, Right?

“You have got to be kidding me...”

The red head glanced around quickly to make sure she’d heard the blonde’s statement correctly; the steady stares from her four friends, each wearing their own confused expressions, seemed to have heard the same thing. Her eyes shifted to the older man standing beside the blonde. He smiled in his normal, charming way and gave no indication that his companion was being anything less than serious.

“Just because disaster has been averted for now doesn’t mean it won’t return. You girls need to be on your toes, ready for anything. Now, school is out for now and it’s a perfect time to get some training in. “

Keiichiro, the older of the two men, sighed and stepped forward to rest his hand on the younger man’s shoulder:

“I know it is last minute, and I am sorry to have interrupted any plans you ladies had for the break in your studies. There are indications that there may be a new threat on the horizon and I wish to make sure you will be safe; this is why we need to go and train while we can. I assure you, this was not at all done to be mean.”

The smile was disarming, and the man’s strongest weapon. He turned and walked away, his long, brown ponytail waving behind him as he turned the conversation back over to the other.

Ryou’s eyes, those rich cobalt blue eyes, rested on the red head’s brown and she felt her cheeks flush red:

“Ichigo, you are the leader of this team; I need you to act like it.” She glared at him but kept her mouth shut. She was a fourteen year old girl, how much maturity did he really expect? It wasn’t her fault that he was seventeen and having to act like a man in his thirties. She’d had plans for the break. Granted, the mostly consisted of going out with Aoyama-Kun, but they were plans none the less. Just like Shirogane Ryou to ruin everything. It was almost as if it was intentional: somehow, he always managed a way to interrupt her dates and it was boarder line irritating. In her frustration, she nearly missed the rest of the conversation going on around her.

When twelve year old Purin asked who would watch her brothers and sister, Ichigo felt rather selfish and childish; here was a young girl, whose father was in China and whose mother was dead and gone, raising her four brothers and her sister in addition to school and fighting alongside her in battle over the past year. Akasaka Keiichiro had always made sure there was someone on hand to help her out when duty called, so Ichigo really shouldn’t have been surprised the girl had asked nor at Akasaka-sama had made the necessary arrangements already for the girl.

“So,” Ichigo inhaled deeply, “when exactly will we be leaving for this training camp?”

Shirogane cocked his eyebrow, possibly in amusement, and glanced to Akasaka-sama who smiled pleasantly in her direction:

“Pending approval from your families? We are hoping to be on our way by the end of the week. My cousin, Haruka-chan, is making the arrangements for us and all we have to do is give her an arrival date.” The light that sparked in Shirogane’s face when his friend mentioned the woman's name was not lost on Ichigo and she found herself twitchy because of it. Her eyes caught his and the look quickly melted from his face leaving that cold, distant expression he wore so well.

A short-time later, Ichigo found herself walking home; she’d opted to take the long way and walk through the large park. It was a good way for her to clear her head from the conversation and, more specifically, to get HIM out of her head. 

“Speak of the devil,” she muttered as the sound of a motorcycle met her ears just as she reached the entrance to the park. Sure enough, when she turned around, there he was hoping off the bike and striding towards her, the irritation showing on his face matching her own feelings in the moment:

“Forget something?” Shirogane reached into his pocket and pulled out Ichigo’s pendant that allowed her to transform into her Mew alter-ego. Despite her scowl, Ichigo flushed and mentally scolded herself for leaving something so important behind. She muttered a thanks and turned to go.

“Wait up, you.” 

“Shirogane, please, I'm really not feeling a lecture about personal responsibility right now,” she muttered as he kept to her brisk pace, “isn't it enough you guys are kidnapping us for an entire month?”

“If you acted a little more like the leader you are, maybe I wouldn't need to lecture you,” he retorted, “intergalactic monsters terrorizing the planet, no problem; sleeping on the ground under a tarp for a few weeks, not a chance in...”

“Shirogane,” Ichigo groaned, halting her step and turning to face him, “are you only following me to torment me or did you have something of actual value to say? Wait, we're sleeping under a what?”

“Nothing,” he replied quickly, clearly realizing he'd given her one more reason to beg her parents to say no, “but you walked off without taking your pendant from me.”

Ichigo turned beat red and looked up at the older teen who was smirking with one eyebrow cocked. She extended her hand and scowled as he placed it gingerly in her palm, his fingers just brushing against her flesh. The frown melted as her heart thumped at the simple, unintentional contact and she closed trembling fingers around the item.

“It's beautiful out tonight,” he said gently, the tension having melted from his features as well. The clouds must have shifted because, as he spoke, Shirogane's hair lit up with the reflected colors of the setting sun. A warm glow crossed his features, illuminating his strong chin and startling eyes.

“You shouldn't really walk home alone so late, Ichigo,” he scolded, a little more of his normal antagonistic tone seeping back in.

“It wasn't too late when I started out,” she replied sharply. The moment gone, she turned and continued on her way but the speed and desire to escape her companion had past and she noticed he followed silent from then on behind her. They were almost at the end of the park when the footsteps stopped and Shirogane muttered something harshly, almost angrily, under his breath.

“What's wrong?” Ichigo paused and turned back, shocked by the sudden and random reaction to seemingly nothing. What could I possibly have done to offend him, she thought as he stormed over. She flinched as he approached, but he only pushed past her and stopped a few feet ahead. His hands were clenched tightly into white-knuckled fists and the fierce words were still slipping out on occasion from under his carefully guarded breath.

“Shirogane?”

He seemed to have forgotten for a moment that she was there, because his words stilled at her voice and his hands unclenched. He took a deep breath and turned with a blank expression on his face, but she could see some of the color had drained and there was almost a look of pity to his normally cocky features.

“The path is closed off,” he stated flatly, walking back toward her, “let's walk back to my bike and I'll give you a ride instead.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her from the spot but Ichigo shook from his grasp and moved to wear he'd been standing just a moment earlier. A closed path would not have set off such rage in the normally composed man, he was lying.

“Ichigo,” he warned, but it was weak with almost a helpless tinge to it. It made her stomach knot because it was an indication that whatever lay ahead, she would have found out soon or later regardless of his attempts to shield her from it.

Just past the walking trail lined with lively trees and the occasional bench for resting was the open field area where she'd had so many dates over the last year. It was an ideal place really, perfect for laying out a blanket to curl up on and watch the sun set and, clearly, she and Aoyama-kun were not the only couple that did that. In fact, there was a cute little couple right near the park entrance, the girl leaning against a long, lean frame that seemed familiar some how. The familiarity gave her pause and she watched as the boy turned and planted a chaste kiss to the side of the girls head. It was the brief motion that allowed her to see his eyes, nose, and lips; the smile that she herself knew all too well. Her body trembled as she watched the blushing girl look up, the young couples eyes locking. When their lips met again, even from a distance, she could tell there was nothing chaste about it and she had to look away before her stomach could fully turn and empty itself.

“Come on, Strawberry,” Shirogane whispered tenderly, “let me take you home.” His strong arms did little to stabilize the heartbroken girl as he lead her away from the scene. There was no teasing in his voice, not even gentle mocking, just strength without pity, and she felt herself latching on to it. Numbness had all but taken over her body by the time they'd reached his bike, in fact he'd need to carry her there part of the way. Ichigo was only vaguely aware when the helmet was placed gently on her head and she was guided to sit behind him. She wrapped her arms securely around and felt his agitated breathing even out ever so slightly before the engine revved. She buried her face in his back and closed her eyes as they sped away from what she was certain had been a horrible nightmare.

“Aoyama-kun,” she whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

The time between walking back to the motorcycle with Shirogane and waking up warm and tucked into bed was a blur, Ichigo had been but a rag doll throughout the entirety of it all. Fortunately her parents had been out that evening, a dinner for her father's business, so he'd been able to get her safely into the house without them noticing her state of distress or asking a lot of unwanted questions. He'd removed her shoes and loosened her hair before tucking her safely under the warm comforter and, for some reason, she was convinced that he hadn't left immediately. She was so certain that he'd been there when she'd drifted off that her eyes now carefully scanned the darkness fully expecting to see him sitting there at the dressing table, watching her.

Aside from the faint glow of the moon outside her bedroom window, the only light source in the room was the eerie green numbers on her alarm clock: three-thirty in the morning. Certainly her parents were home now, the house was perfectly still and silent. She lay there a moment, waiting for sleep to pull her back down, but she found it elusive and, ultimately, gave up.

The seat at her dressing table had grown cold now, a sure sign that any recent occupant was long gone, and glanced at the puffy, swollen eyes gazing back at her. Long, slender fingers lightly touched her face and Ichigo sighed. Maybe a little make up and no one will notice, she said to herself in the darkness. She moved to rummage through her bureau drawers, laying out a simple skirt and a cute tee on her crumpled bed sheets. With little pause, she scooped her toiletries basket up from atop her bureau and her towel from it's hook on the back of her door and eased into the hallway.

Ichigo sighed contently as her muscles unknotted and relaxed in the warm bath. She'd been unaware of just how tense she'd been until that moment and she whimpered in delight as she sank further into it's depths. I can deal with this, she assured herself as a soap-filled loofah scrubbed her troubles away, I don't need Aoyama-kun, she muttered, but the words sounded brittle and false at best. The mental image of that girl with her arms wrapped around Aoyama, HER Aoyama-kun, flashed in her minds eye again and Ichigo's breath faltered. She wondered how long it would be before it stopped feeling as if someone was hitting her in the stomach repeatedly.

She knew better, but Ichigo couldn't stop the question that hit front in center of her mind: what had she done wrong. She knew the answer was nothing, that he was the one that needed to do the explaining and not her, but that was a phone call she was not yet willing to make.

Confident that the hall was still empty, she crept back to her room and shut the door tightly behind her. The white fluffy towel encasing her slender body slipped from her hip and bust; she returned it to the hook on the door and gathered the clothing on her bed to dress for the day. She sat at the dressing table once again, relieved to see some of the initial redness and signs of tears had faded during her warm soak, and began the task of combing the tangles from her shoulder length red hair.

She picked up her brush and began to pull at the tangles, a menial task but one that took much of her attention and kept her from thinking too much more about what had happened. By the time she was satisfied, Ichigo could hear her mother shuffling about in the kitchen and smell the food wafting down the hall. She pulled the red locks up into her trademark pigtails and stared at the girl in the mirror until her mother called her for breakfast.

“Morning, Mama, Dad.” Both were sitting down to eat when Ichigo came out of her room and joined them. She looked over at her mother who smiled in her normal, pleasant way and piled food onto her daughter's plate.

“Glad to see you up and moving around so early,” she commented cheerfully, “got a date with Aoyama-kun today?”

Ichigo physically flinched but quickly recovered herself: “no, actually, I'm working at the cafe today.”

“You must thank your boss for that delicious cake he sent home with you last week,” her mother gushed, “that man puts my baking to shame!” Ichigo smiled softly and took a bite of food, not at all hungry but not wanting to call attention to herself by shunning it.

“I will,” Ichigo replied, trying to mirror her mother's enthusiasm. “By the way, Akasaka-sama and Shirogane are, well, planning something kind of fun for us this summer. It's sort of a break from work, a team building exercise I guess,” Ichigo stumbled gracelessly over the words. She hadn't been intending to bring it up so quickly but suddenly the idea of getting as far away from Tokyo and Aoyama-kun as possible sounded heavenly.

“Ooh, sounds like fun!” Sakura's eyes got wide and she leaned in closer to get the details. All the while, her father's lips grew into a tighter and tighter line.

“A whole month of camping in the wilderness,” Sakura let out a long, low whistle, “are you sure that's for you, Honey? You're not really the outdoor type.”

“Well, who knows,” Ichigo shrugged, “it's not like I've ever really tried it before, maybe I'm not really a city girl at all and just don't know it yet.”

“But what about your boyfriend,” Sakura reminded her, “won't he be jealous of those handsome young men with you?”

“This is not happening,” Shintaro grumbled, firmly placing his now empty coffee mug on the table, “you are not spending a month in the woods with two older men.”

“Technically, Dad, Shirogane's only a few years older than I am,” Ichigo said softly, taking another bite of food.

“We'll talk about it Ichigo,” her mother smiled and smoothed her daughter's hair, “but off hand I don't see any reason to say no.”

“I can think of two right now,” her father muttered, but Ichigo recognized the sound of defeat in his tone.

The rest of the meal was relatively uneventful, and they'd just begun to clear the table when there was a knock on the door.

“Ichigo, would you get that please,” Sakura asked before continuing to wipe the table down.

The lean yet muscular blonde leaned casually against the wall beside the door as it opened, his eyes closed as if he were meditating or lost in thought.

“Shirogane,” she said, shocked that he'd turn up on her doorstep the morning after her meltdown. The last thing she wanted was her parents asking questions so she stepped onto the front walk and pulled the door shut behind her.

“What are you doing here?”

“You were are real mess last night, I just wanted to know that you were okay.” The words were spoken with little to no warmth, nothing to suggest he was genuinely concerned for her well-being. Still, she'd learned over the last year that he felt more than he let on, and just the fact that he'd come all the way down to see her in person spoke louder than any words he could have strung together. A light tinge colored her cheeks and she nodded.

“Good,” he said softly. There was something soothing in his eyes that caught her, but no sooner had she noticed it that it was gone, “I don't want you slacking at work just because that pretty boy turned out to be slime.”

“Shirogane, only you can make me go from happy to irritated in under a minute.”

“It's not my fault that you can't control your emotions,” he chided with a quick shrug.

The next few days went by quickly with work at the cafe and preparing for the trip the rest of the time. Finally, the day came and she found herself at the local bus depot with a bright orange hiking backpack that possibly weight more than she did herself. She had been nervous that Aoyama would try to find her at the cafe, or call her house and come find her at the depot, but when the battered old bus pulled up and they began to load, her fears dissolved into relieved bliss.

Still, when all her friends had loaded on, laughing and joking, she paused and looked back over her shoulder.

“Cheer up, Strawberry,” Shirogane sighed, taking her pack from her and tossing it like it was nothing into the storage compartment, “this trip is going to be really fun, it'll be nice for all of us to hang out without the pressure of needing to save the world and all.”

“I thought this was for training,” Ichigo said carefully, not wanting to slight his enthusiasm.

Shirogane shrugged, “most of the training will be happening when you don't even realize it. This is all more about building strength and endurance, sharpening everyone's minds and tuning our survival skills.”

Ichigo nodded and tried to return the friendly smile. It was clear that he was excited about the trip, and she could help but feel like Akasaka-san's cousin, Haruka, had something to do with that. It made her the slightest bit uncomfortable and she had no idea why.

“Something wrong, Ichigo?”

She suddenly became aware of fingers rubbing her pointy cat ears.

“Not a thing,” she called in response, ducking onto the bus and desperately trying to will the unwanted appendages away before anyone could see, especially.

“Ichigo!” Mint's cool voice broke through her concentration and Ichigo felt the color drain from her face. “What's with the cat ears this morning?”

“Yes, Ichigo, tell us what you and Shirogane were talking about that got you so excited,” Zakuro teased with a that wise-beyond-her-years look she always wore. Ichigo tried to dissolve into the seat.

Nothing like that, she muttered in response, “he's being weird,” she finally muttered, “I don't know what his problem is.”

“He's trying to make you happy,” Purin cheered, doing her normal stunts and tricks in the seat beside a frantic Retasu. The older girl clasped her hands over the younger girls mouth and smiled nervously.

“Retasu,” she started slowly, “why would Shirogane be trying to make me happy, if that is in fact what he is doing in his own sadistic little way?”

She stared down the one girl in the group she knew would spill the beans with the least amount of effort and it paid off when Retasu sighed and leaned forward, letting her long, green bangs hide her glasses:

“He told us about Aoyama-kun.”

The silence that followed the admission lingered, the tension tangible as Ichigo's brown eyes pierced her boss's blue:

“You,” Ichigo caught herself and tried again, “that wasn't your news to share,” she finally hissed out from between clenched teeth. There was no look of being repentant in his face, eyes, or the way he was sitting, but he wouldn't look her in the eye, which only fueled the fire.

“Hey, I just didn't want it to come up in conversation and hurt you.”

“Ichigo,” Akasaka-sama interrupted calmly, smiling gently, “you must believe me when I say Ryou only had your best interest at heart when he told us. Don't be mad at him.”

Ichigo sighed and nodded. It wasn't that she hadn't wanted them to know, she had just wanted to be the one to tell them when she wanted to talk about it, which she definitely did not want to do at present.

“You're really over sensitive sometimes,” Shirogane muttered.

THWACK.

The bus erupted in laughter as Ichigo's handbag smacked Shirogane in the back of the head.

“You deserved that one, Ryou,” you shouldn't have teased her when she was upset like that.”

Shirogane muttered something about having been only kidding as the bus rambled onward, taking the group further and further from the city lights.


End file.
